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When the slaves get together, that’s the beginning of getting out of slavery


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“When the slaves get together, that’s the beginning of getting out of slavery.”—Martin Luther King, Jr.

I'd be surprised if many people would recognize that quote coming from MLK.  If they knew it was Dr, King, they probably would not recognize that it came from the famous speech he gave, the evening before he was murdered in Memphis, TN almost 49 years ago to the day, the "Mountaintop" speech.  The most quoted line is, "We, as a people, will get to the promised land!

I'm glad I reread this speech as I was migrating Dr. King's web page.  We are misdirected with the focus nonviolent aspect of King's message.  But King was keen on using economic power to win justice for Black folks.

“And so, as a result of this, we are asking you tonight, to go out and tell your neighbors not to buy Coca-Cola in Memphis.”

It was pretty clear from the speech that King knew his life was in serious danger but he did not let up.  Calling for a boycott of Coke in the south probably signed his death warrant.

Coke does not have to worry about Negros boycotting them today, or anything else for that matter because we are not prepared to give up anything--even if it would advance our cause.

Read or listen to the entire speech--especially if you have heard it before.

mlk-last-speech.jpg

 

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That short little speech was so deep.

Yeah, there are no leaders speaking this way.  All of our leaders are quite safe and at no risk being assassinated today.

Forget about Black people for a second, image if the masses boycotted Walmart, Amazon or Facebook for a day, a week or even a month. This shouldn't even be a sacrifice for anyone, but image the immediate impact of throwing our collective, financial, weight around?

We should be boycotting Coca-Cola simply because the product is complete garbage and only good for fostering obesity and related illnesses.

Of course, we will never boycott anything because all of us slaves (whites folks, you are slaves too) are still fighting amongst ourselves. 

---------------

Is Black History Month still a thing?  From my perspective, Black History is celebrated every day, but thinking about this last February I don't recall much buzz about Black History Month.  In fact, I usually see a doubling of traffic the site February, this year the increase was much more muted. The graph below supports my observations, should that the number of search for the term Black History Month is way down compared going back to 2004 (the earliest year Google supplies data).

Remember Black Solidarity Day? maybe that explains the small spike prior to the one in February

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If I could be so bold, I would actually amend that quote from  Martin Luther "Da Kang" to say:
"When slaves RECOGNIZE THEY ARE SLAVES, that's the beginning of getting out of slavery."


I think we do have some leaders with us today who are just as bold and thorough as King.
Minister Louis Farrakhan and Dr Umar Johnson are two that immediately come to mind.

The problem...as I see it...isn't with the LEADERSHIP.
The problem is with the MASSES.

When the leaders do their job to relate information to that masses and TRY to stir them up and organize them.....but they refuse to follow directions.....there's not much the leaders can do.
Most Black people instinctively KNOW much of what to do, but many still won't do it after being told repeatedly.

As you pointed out, most of our people don't want to boycott coke or any other institution because they aren't prepared and in most cases don't even have the desire to give up anything.

And even if they DID decide to with hold patronizing a particular business, Black people have so few REAL businesses today (meaning brick-n-mortar establishments that you can walk in and patronize) that most Black people even in mostly Black neighborhoods are STILL totally dependant on non-Blacks for their food, clothing, and shelter.
I take you into a Black neighborhood in Detroit and out of 500 businesses, except for churches Black folks may own only 7 or 8.
Usually a soulfood joint, a funeral home, a barbershop, weave shop, and few other mom-n-pop establishments.
The rest are major White chains like discount clothing stores and fast food restaurants, coney islands ran by Albanians, liquor stores and gas stations ran by Arabs, beauty supply stores ran by Koreans, cheap motels ran by Indians, and cheap Chinese food joints.

I used to get angry at all of these people coming in the hood making money off of us, until it was pointed out to me on more than one occasion that if they WEREN'T in the hood providing that service.....how many Black people would be able to?
I didn't really have a response for that.

There is no need to PUNISH other races for making money off of us.
Rather we should focus on REWARDING ourselves by having the intelligence and discipline to start out own etablishments and institutions and entice people to come to US for what they need.

We must remember that many of the older tactics for demanding legal and social justice that worked in the 60s and 70s no longer work today.
The demographic is much too different.

People were more religious oriented back in those days and you could appeal to their conscience or sense of morality and shame.
Good luck trying to do that today.

Police officers kill with the cameras rolling.
Blacks boycott a company and that company will turn around and focus on Hispanics.
All the major media outlets can expose a Republican in office abusing his authority, stealing, and lying...in full detail with all the facts lined up....and that Republican will simply call it all a lie and REFUSE to resign.
He'll just try to wait it out until he thinks the media frenzy will die down.
Even workers threatening to go on strike doesn't work as well because now so many companies have moved their operations overseas.

The old tactics of shame, dishonor, or even with holding patronage doesn't work nearly as well as it used to.


Del also made a good point about Trump trying to bring back FEUDALISM.

Most people don't understand that this is the end result of unchecked capitalism.

A plutocracy where a handful of wealthy people own and control everything in society.
Ultra capitalists and feudalists desire a weak or non-existant government where all of the citizens are turned into "subjects" totally dependant on the business sector with no right to refuse.

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@Pioneer1, to your point about leaders.  Leaders, by definition, have followers. If the so-called followers don't do what the leader says, then that person is not much of a leader. Are they?

Obama, for example, is not a leader, but Minister Farrakhan is definitely one.  But the impact of the NOI was greatly diminished after government intervention fostered division within the organization, as with the Pathers and an organization responsible for making material changes within and for the Black community.  Brother Umar is a leader too but he is too obscure to have the kind of impact Matin or Malcolm had.

I hate to let you guys in on something, but feudalism has already returned. Once white folks started complaining about a lack of opportunity that should have told you it was a wrap for us spooks.  

But we are happy to be serfs, so long as we have cable TV, social media, sugary food, porn/sex, and some way to get high.  We don't mind being bound to the land--most of us don't even have passports. We are happy to give away our labor for free (ala HuffPosty Bloggers)

Here is a related article worth reading:

Black-Grocer.jpgThe Decline of Black Business And what it means for American democracy by Brian S. Feldman

Last June, Black Enterprise magazine marked the forty-fourth anniversary of the BE 100s, the magazine’s annual ranking of the nation’s top 100 black-owned businesses. At the top of the list stood World Wide Technology, which, since its founding in 1990, has grown into a global firm with more than $7 billion in revenue and 3,000 employees. Then came companies like Radio One, whose fifty-five radio stations fan out among sixteen national markets. The combined revenues of the BE 100s, which also includes Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Productions, now totals more than $24 billion, a ninefold increase since 1973, adjusting for inflation.

A closer look at the numbers, however, reveals that these pioneering companies are the exception to a far more alarming trend. The last thirty years also have brought the wholesale collapse of black-owned independent businesses and financial institutions that once anchored black communities across the country. In 1985, sixty black-owned banks were providing financial services to their communities; today, just twenty-three remain. In eleven states that headquartered black-owned banks in 1994, not a single one is still in business. Of the fifty black-owned insurance companies that operated during the 1980s, today just two remain.  Read the full article in the Washington Monthly.

Of course there a great number of parallels to Black bookstores. 

This photo of the Black grocery struck a cord, because I remember when Black people owned grocery stores in Harlem.  Today I'm not aware of a single grocery store owned by a Black person. 

 

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The US has always been a plutocracy. Only two signers of the Declaration of Independence were working class. So Trump is honoring his promise to make America great. Instead of rilling the clock back to 1920. He's going way back... back in time Jimmy Castor.

You can't build a business being Rootless. 

Those immigrants come from countries. What country can Afro-American claim.  None only a hairstyle.

What type of leader do you see galvanizing the Souls of Black Folks .

 

In my grandmother's neighborhood near Crotona Park.  There were three Black stores right next to each other. And we knew the owners.  A Beauty Shop A Barber shop and a little grocery store likehe one in the picture. 

The Barber shop and the beauty shop were salons in both sentences if the word. 

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The closed in the late 70's. I wa born in the Hunts Point and we moved to the north east. Which was more middle class.  The neighborhood and area were changing in the 70's. And by the 80's it was mostly Blacks Jamaicans and a few Hispanics.  By 1980 there were only a handful of White people. 

Yeah Hunts Point was hood. My Grandmother's neignorhood was hood. My childhood neighborhood became more dangerous when Crack was King. The other diffeence was my neighborhood had semi-attached homes.

If you went three blocks upnthe Street you were in the projects. 

We had two number runners they were Mafia. And a Mafia front store. That had a slot machine at one point.  So did some other shop. And there was aome store that had illegal gambling in the back. 

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Troy

Leaders, by definition, have followers. If the so-called followers don't do what the leader says, then that person is not much of a leader. Are they?


You make a great point that I often think about from time to time.

If you consider yourself a leader but have few followers OR your followers don't half follow what you ask them to do.....who's fault is it?

Is it THEIRS for not doing what you ask of them?
Or is it YOURS for not motivating them enough to do it?

I think Black leadership does indeed bear SOME responsibility for the conditions most Black communities in America are in today; but the brunt of it is outside of thier hands.
Infact I believe the condition Black people in America are in today primarily isn't even the fault of neither the Black leadership NOR the masses of the people. There is a lot of pressure from OUTSIDE the Black community today to suppress Black political and economic progress and there's only so much a leader or their supporters...when trying to work WITHIN THE SYSTEM...can do to overcome this pressure.


This is why I'm a strong advocate of building OUR OWN system.

The fact that we are trying to operate in an economic system that was designed against us is an explaination as to the dismal numbers for Black businesses today.

It's not like Black people have ran out of ideas or lack the spirit of entrepreneurship
Every brother and half the sisters I KNOW have good ideas for businesses but they all say the same obstacles are in their way today.......lack of capital and excessive regulation.

Most Black people have a hard time trying to come up with the money....atleast a half million dollars......to open up a respectable establishment in most urban communities today.
And if they somehow DO come across the money or get a loan they have to constantly deal with excessive rules and regulations coming form the federal, state, county, and local levels of government that require a MASTER'S DEGREE just to figure out and keep up with.


If we study the condition of Blacks in America RIGHT AFTER slavery during Reconstruction all the way up to the Depression Era, we had far more businesses and manual skills as a community than we do today.


 




Delano

You can't build a business being Rootless.

Those immigrants come from countries. What country can Afro-American claim. None only a hairstyle.

We don't need to claime another country....we already HAVE one....it's called America.

AfroAmerican's roots go down deeper than ANYONE else's in this nation.
There is no other ethnic group...other than Native American ones...who can claim lay claim to having ancestry living on this land longer than us.

Not only do we have deep roots, but we have a very strong and established CULTURE that we could generate a lot of wealth with if we learned how to promote it and maintain it properly.

You can't turn the corner without seeing Mexican and Italian resturaunts, these are cultures from outside of the United States but they were PUSHED on America.
It's the same with St. Patrick's Day and folks running around wearing green and coloring the river green every year.
I even saw a few silly negroes running around with green afros and t-shirts on the other week.

People will not respect you UNTIL you learn to respect yourself and your own culture.

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Black people are consumers as are most people.  Why? Because it's easier and more convenient to let others manufacture and provide goods and services. It's a sign of success if you afford to buy the luxurious trappings that other have produced to provide you with pleasure and privilege.  

We are all slaves to materialism. Unless what an industrious person  has to offer is better and more efficient than the competition, this person is destined to be second rate.  And it doesn't matter what color their skin is.  

Black people seem to have an affinity for providing entertainment.  Both a blessing and a curse. 

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Black people seem to have an affinity for providing entertainment.


That's because we tend to be more "creative" and are also more socially intuitive.

White students tend to incline towards formal academic "training" and learning how to memorize and recite information.

But when it comes to music, arts, physical hands-on actiities like sports, dance, designing, and activities that involve thinking quickly on one's feet without a written script or plan.......BLACK PEOPLE EXCEL.



It's that old Left Brain vrs Right Brain.

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